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ABORIGINES 



OK THE 



^VSTEST IINTDIEB 



BY 



FREDERICK A. OBER. 



ABORIGINES 



OF THE 



^VV^EST INDIES 



/) 
/''- 



FREDERICK A. OBER. 



Feom Peoceedings of the Ameeican Antiqdakian Society, at the Semi- 
annual Meeting, held in Boston, April 25, 1894. 




""mxmin, pa^,^., 11, ^. %, 

PRESS or CHARLES HAMILTON, 

311 MAIN STREET. 

1894. 



Wbk 



1029 



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ABOEIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 



A NEGLECTED field of Scientific research, yet lying adjacent 
to and between the two great continents of America, is that 
comprising the vast collection of islands known as the West 
Indies. Although containing the first islands discovered 
by Columbus, and including the seas first traversed by 
Spanish ships, in the New World, it was many years before 
the actual condition and population of those islands was 
made known to the civilized world. Even now, less, per- 
haps, is known respecting them than of many portions of 
lands considered as unexplored. No longer ago than 1878, 
I had the pleasure of discovering some twenty species of 
birds, which had until that time rested in obscurity, 
unknown and undescribed, and of sending to the Unit d 
States the first collection of aboriginal implements used by 
the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. 

The West Indies are divided, as is well known, into the 
Greater and Lesser Antilles, the former comprising the 
islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Domingo or Haiti, and 
Puerto Rico, to which we may add the Bahamas ; the latter, 
that crescent-shaped archipelago called the Caribbean Chain, 
connecting the larger islands with the continent of South 
America. These, again, are locally divided into Windward 
and Leeward, with reference to their situation respecting 
the prevailing trade- winds. 

All these islands were inhabited, at the time of their dis- 
covery, by people called, by Columbus, " Indians," who 
were possessed of characteristics which distinguished them 
from any others at that time known to Europeans. It is my 



purpose to attempt to designate the chief centres of popula- 
tion, at the period of discovery ; to indicate the status of 
civilization, as shown by the remains yet in existence ; the 
distribution of these Indians in ancient times ; and such of 
their descendants as still dwell in these islands. The first 
islands to which we shall give our attention are those first 
discovered by Columbus in October, 1492 : 

The Bahamas. — The incidents of that first voyage across 
the Atlantic are, of course, familiar to all. I myself have 
traced the wanderings of Columbus throughout Spain, have 
followed in his footsteps after the Court of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, have visited the convent of La Rabida, and sailed 
the historic Rio Tinto. Again, I have visited and explored 
all the islands discovered by him, have investigated the 
matter of the first Landfall, and have studied the circum- 
stances of his different actions on the scenes of their occur- 
rence. It is not my intention to revive these incidents of 
the voyages of Columbus ; but to recall the people and dis- 
coveries of his time. 

We are told by the historian that the people seen on the 
islands where Columbus first landed, were of a tawny or 
copper complexion, that they went about naked, and pos- 
sessed but few of the articles considered necessary to 
civilized man. For a full description I must refer you to the 
" Life of Columbus," by Washington Irving, and the narra- 
tion of Las Casas, from which Irving drew his material, — 
the Journal of Columbus. They possessed no article of 
iron or bronze, their weapons being lances tipped with fish- 
bones or stone, and bows and arrows. Their huts were of 
the simplest materials, made of palm-leaves, such being 
amply suflScient in the delightful climate of those tropical 
islands. The fact, that remains of these Indians have been 
found in caves, and under overhanging rocks, does not 
warrant us in the inference that they were in any sense 
Troglodytes ; since the Bahamas abound in such caverns, and 
to them these people naturally turned for refuge, when sub- 



sequently pursued by the Spaniards, and for shelter. They 
were gentle and peace-loving, as we have testimony from 
Columbus himself; shapely and athletic; having no wars, 
except with occasional invaders from the south. All their 
traditions, of origin, of the existence of gold (a few orna- 
ments in which metal they wore), of invasion, of a country 
greater than their own, pointed to the south. They told 
Columbus that he could find gold in great quantities in the 
south, as well as a great chief, and numerous other peoples. 
At the time of their discovery, these Bahamas possessed 
tame parrots (which no longer exist on Watling's Island, 
but are found on Acklin, about a hundred miles away), and 
these seem to have been the only domesticated pets, from 
the scant animal life about them. The most noticeable 
article they owned was the canoe (canoa), the largest 
holding more than forty men, which they propelled by 
means of paddles, and baled out with calabashes. 

At Guanahani, then, the aborigines were found possessed 
of parrots, crude implements of bone and stone, canoes, 
huts of palm-leaves, a few articles of gold, and little, if 
anything, else, except cotton. Later on, at the third island 
visited, called by Columbus Fernandina, now known as 
Long Island, the Europeans added to this brief list, ham- 
mocks, tobacco, and cassava bread. "Their beds and 
coverings," says Columbus, "looked like cotton nets, which 
they called hamacas" and, " the Indian captured by us in 
the channel between Santa Maria and Fernandina had some 
dry leaves, highly prized, no doubt, among them, for those 
of San Salvador offered some to me as a present." This 
was tobacco, which was afterwards found in quantities in 
Cuba, where the natives were seen smoking it. 

The Indians of the Bahamas were soon exterminated, 
although Columbus did not revisit the scene of his discov- 
eries ; and as early as 1508, when the cruelties of the Span- 
iards had nearly depopulated Haiti, the natives were 
carried hence to labor in the mines. Under their cruel 



enslavers the Lucaj'^ans sank rapidly ; it is on record that 
some forty thousand were transported, never to return, and 
the islands once teeming with happy life were finally left 
desolate. I cannot state exactly the period of their depopu- 
lation ; in the year 1512, when Ponce de Leon sailed 
through the Bahamas in search of the fountain of youth, he 
found some of the islands inhabited, for he was told of th6 
famous fountain by natives of the northern islands ; but 
doubtless the southern ones were already deprived of all 
their inhabitants, even so early. Respecting that search 
for the mythical fountain of youth, I may say, that my 
investigations were made in the island of Puerto Rico, 
whence De Leon sailed on his quest, and that there I dis- 
covered that his remains are yet treasured, as well as many 
relics of his time. He cruised the archipelago just twenty 
years after Columbus, and also in 1521, the year of his 
death, when he was wounded on the coast of Florida, taken 
to Cuba, where he died, and thence his remains brought 
back to Puerto Rico. 

Doubtless, the natives were entirely exterminated before 
the end of the XVlth. century, as when the English settled 
the Bahamas, about 1629, not one remained. The historians, 
Herrera and Martyr, give all details of the means by which 
their extermination was hastened, and to their pages I 
would refer the curious student. I liud reference to them 
in a work published in 1666, as follows: "That poor 
nation, the Lucayos, hath been utterly destroyed by the 
Spaniard*, or carryd away and made slaves to work in the 
mines, and there are not, in any of the islands known under 
that name, any of the natural inhabitants ; but only some 
few English, who were transported thither out of the island 
of Bermudez." We may confidently assume that it is full 
three hundred years since the Bahamas knew the presence 
of any of its aboriginal inhabitants. Let us now examine 
the evidence of their former occupancy, as given in the few 
relics recovered at various times. Of the people them- 



selves, the Lucayans, or Ceboyans as they have been 
termed, few remains have been found, and these few mainly 
in caves. Several skeletons have been recovered, but I 
cannot learn that any skeleton in its entirety has been 
deposited in any museum. Id the public library of Nassau, 
New Providence, are two crania of the aboriginal Ceboyans, 
and I brought one skull from Watling's Island, which was 
exhibited at the Chicago Exposition, and afterward given 
to the Columbian Museum. Of these crania, Prof. W. K. 
Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, says : " The 
skulls are extremely broad in proportion to their length, 
and are among the most brachycephalic of all human skulls, 
the greatest breadth being more than nine-tenths of their 
greatest length. The brain was large, and the capacity of 
the cranium about equal to that of an average Caucasian 
skull. The Ceboyans flattened their heads artificially in 
infancy, so that the vertical part of the forehead is com- 
pletely obliterated in all adult skulls, and the head slopes 
backward immediately above the eyes."^ I myself found 
bones and many fragments in the caves I explored on Wat- 
ling's and Cat Islands ; but all the caves of the Bahamas 
have long since been thoroughly investigated, during the 
search for cave-earth or bat guano. As these investigations 
were not conducted in the interests of science (I may 
remark), such bones and crania as were found were not 
taken into account, and in most instances were lost to the 
museums. The dry earth of the caves was the best medium 
possible for preserving objects deposited therein, and not 
only bones, but various articles of domestic use among the 
Lucayans, have been discovered. At the Jamaica Exposi- 
tion, of 1891, were exhibited many such articles, and 
among them a few that are almost entirely unique : such as 
a carved seat of lignum vitse, a stone axe inserted in a 
handle of wood, and another with head and haft of one 
stone. The seats of wood are described by the early bis- 



See Popular Science Monthly, Nov., 1889. 



torians, as seats used by the chiefs, made in the form of 
beasts and reptiles, and carved out of one piece of wood. 
One such specimen is now preserved in the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, at Washington, and another is in the public library 
of Grand Turk's Island, Bahamas. The Spanish Consul at 
Grand Turk, Mr. Geo. J. Gibbs, owns the celebrated stone 
axe in one piece, a cast of which was obtained by Prof. 
Henry, of the Smithsonian, twenty years ago. Prof. 
Henry, at that time, valued the original at $500, but I have 
information that Mr. Gibbs will dispose of it now for some 
$200, if a purchaser can be found. This specimen is con- 
sidered absolutely unique, and I trust that some museum 
in America will be fortunate enough to secure it. 

In addition to these important relics of native workman- 
ship, which were found in caves in the Caicos and Grand 
Turk, the usual "celts" are discovered, though rarely, 
throughout the entire chain. As the Bahamas include some 
two thousand islands and rocks, and the character of the cal- 
careous rock is such that caves and pot-holes abound every- 
where, it is possil)le that man}-^ articles may yet be found, 
that have escaped the eyes of the guano hunter. Through- 
out the islands, the smaller celts are known as "thunder- 
bolts," and are treasured by the present natives as of celestial 
origin, and possessing supernatural virtues. They declare 
that they fall from the clouds, in time of storm, and I have 
met with individuals who told me they themselves saw 
some descend. One old darkey declared to me that he saw 
one strike a tree, in the midst of a Hash of lightning, and 
afterwards recovered the identical stone. This name is of 
universal application, and in the Spanish islands the stones 
are called ^'piedras de rayo," — thunderbolts, — as well as 
in the English and French islands. A strange fact may be 
noticed with reference to these celts, and that is, that all, 
or nearly all, are made from stone not to be found within 
the area of the Bahaman chain. The}'^ are most assuredly 
of foreign origin, and were probably brought here from the 



southern islands, as Puerto Rico or Santo Domingo ; an- 
other evidence of the truth of the statement by the early 
historians, that the Indians performed long voyages in their 
canoes. They are of fine, dark stone, compact in grain, and 
polished, being excellent specimens of the neolithic age. 
One small celt, which I obtained at Long Island, is of per- 
fect shape and exquisitely rounded, and resembles another 
which I got in the interior of the island of Santo Domingo. 
All that I have seen are of this dark-green stone, and I have 
not found any of any other kind. There is no evidence 
of implements having been made from conch shell, which is 
so abundant, and from which the natives of Barbadoes and 
the southern islands made their chisels and other articles. 
One remarkable specimen, which was discovered in a field, 
by a negro, in 1892, and brought to Nassau during my 
stay there, is ten and one-half inches long, three and 
one-half inches broad, and has carved upon it a face, as 
in a moon, with oblique, oriental eyes. This is also of 
dark-green stone, probably jade or serpentine, and is the 
only one of the kind I have seen. 

In the Smithsonian collection are several specimens 
from the Bahamas, obtained by the U. S. ship Albatross, 
some of which are figured in my recent work, "In 
the Wake of Columbus"; as also, are several typical 
forms of "axes," one of the crania, and a wooden seat. 
These things that I have mentioned comprise nearly all 
the types found in the Bahamas, showing the condition 
of Lucayan art. 

I should not omit to mention a canoe which was found 
in a cave on Watling's Island, but of which, since its 
discovery, I can find no trace. In an enquiry into the 
origin of these relics, we cannot find that any are abso- 
lutely unique, or autochthonic, except, possibly, the stone 
axe in one piece, and the stools, or seats. But even these 
latter are found in Haiti and Santo Domingo, — on the 
north coast, — and from this fact one might imply a south- 



10 

ern origin for all these articles, or a similar people inhabit- 
ing there. Herrera speaks of the first ones discovered in 
Cuba, on the first visit of Columbus, as follows : — "seats 
made of a solid piece of wood in the shape of a beast with 
very short legs and the tail held up, the head before with 
eyes and ears of gold. " These were used only by the 
chiefs, the common people squatting on the ground. The 
two specimens in the Smithsonian are from Turk's and 
Caicos islands ; but there is a stone specimen of this type, 
also, from Puerto Rico ; and it is thought that the form may 
have been suggested by the hammock, as the stools have a 
similar curve or sweep. 

The Indians of the Bahamas doubtless depended chiefly 
for subsistence upon the products of the sea : fish, which 
are so abundant around the shores of their islands, and 
especially upon conchs, found in countless numbers on the 
reefs and in /the shallow lagoons. Of animal food they 
probably partook but sparingly, there being no large quad- 
rupeds on the islands ; and birds must have been hard to 
capture. Sea birds and their eggs, in the season, gave 
them supplies, probably, and they ate the flesh and eggs 
of the iguana, which is still common, turtles also, with 
their eggs ; the seas abound in turtle. 

They cultivated but little, the soil of the Bahamas being 
thin, and in many of the islands contained in more or less 
extensive pockets in the calcareous rock ; but they had 
maize and "yucca," perhaps fruits like the pine-apple and 
others native to the soil. Nature was kind to these chil- 
dren of nature, and they led a careless existence, depending 
chiefly upon the bounties of the sea. 

jQuiiA. — Following still in the trail of Columbus, and 
taking the island next discovered by him after he left the 
Bahamas, we arrive at Cuba, which he discovered the last of 
October, 1492. He landed on the north coast, probably at 
or near the present port of Jibara, and there saw the 
Indians of that island. 



11 

They were more advanced than the inhabitants of the 
Bahamas, — but on the same lines of progression, — probably 
owing to the superiority of their island over the others, in 
point of size and fertility. That is, they had better and 
more numerous houses, hidden in shady groves, more 
extensive fields of maize and manioc, and more numerous 
articles of domestic use. Coasting the northern shore of 
Cuba, — which, by the way, still retains its aboriginal 
name, — Columbus discovered villages and people similar 
to the Lucayans, and sent an embassy into the interior, to 
treat with the cacique, whom he is supposed to have 
assumed was the Grand Khan. When the embassy re- 
turned, the navigators learned their mistake ; but they had 
added several articles to previous " finds," and found the 
inhabitants possessed of a slightly higher type of civiliza- 
tion, as has been mentioned. 

They found the Indians smoking tobacco, in rolls ; 
their huts hung with hammocks, and using the carved 
seats, to which allusion has been made. They had also 
greater stores of cotton, in yarn and woven into nets, 
a greater variety of fruits, and also of animals from which 
to derive subsistence. In addition to the larger number 
and more numerous species of birds, there were also sev- 
eral mammals, non-existent in the Bahamas. These indig- 
enous mammals of Cuba are : the two species of Hutia, or 
Yutia, — Hutia Poeyii and H. ForiHer; — a small animal 
known as the Almiqui, — the 8olanum Cubanus; — the 
Javalli, or peccary, and the "Dumb Dog," which by some 
is thought to have been a raccoon, but more probably was 
an animal now extinct. Little gold was found in the keep- 
ing of the natives, but they told of a region of gold to 
the southward, which they called Bohio, since proven to 
have been the island of Haiti. 

Cuba was left, for twenty years after its discovery, in j 
comparative possession of the natives, when the settlements / 
were then attempted which eventually led to their extinc- ', 



12 

tion. No date is given as to the final extinction of the 
Indians of Cuba, but it was not long after the arrival of 
Velasquez and his crew, and the sailing of Cortez for 
Mexico ; for the barbarities of the Bahamas and Haiti were 
re-enacted on this island, until the natives killed themselves 
by scores, in despair, and to escape the Spaniards. 

Affecting stories are narrated of the conquest of this 
island ; but to no avail did the natives struggle for mere 
subsistence and a life of freedom. The largest settlements 
seem to have been in the eastern end of Cuba; at least, 
that is where the sjreatest number of relics have been found. 
In the Real Academia, of Havana, are to he seen a few 
of these remains of the primitive Cubans, in the shape of 
stone axes and other implements, and particular attention 
is called to some crania, imbedded in lime rock, which 
were discovered in caves near Cape Maisi, the extreme 
eastern end of Cuba, by a gentleman of Havana, who 
described them and their locales in a magazine published 
by the Academy. These skulls, of which several were ob- 
tained, are brachycephalic, having a cephalic index of above 
90, one of them showing 93.75, another 90, and all with 
more or less pronounced frontal depressions, artificially 
produced. They are, of course, of great antiquity, some 
of them having been found imbedded entirely in the cal- 
careous rock of the caverns, and covered with thick 
deposits of bat guano. As to their antiquity, I will not 
hazard conjecture ; but accompanying this paper, I send the 
original magazine in which the description appeared, in 
which the details of their recovery are fully set forth, and a 
photograph. ^ Fragments of pottery, and some implements, 
were also obtained, such as a clay figure, an earthen 
jar which contained Indian bones, an axe or hatchet of ser- 
pentine, beautifully polished, and several minor articles of 
the class called '■'■ piedras de rayo," or thunderbolts, — in 
Cuba, as elsewhere. 

1 Auiiles dc la lieal Afudemia; Ilavaua, Nov. 15, 1890; Tomo XXVII. 



13 

But enough has been shown to prove that the natives 
of Cuba were allied to those of the Bahamas, and had 
surpassed them, only in degree, on the same lines of devel- 
opment. As will be alluded to farther on, the natives of all 
the Greater Antilles, including the Bahamas, were of the 
same stock, as shown by their racial characteristics and 
linguistic affinities. 

Island of Jamaica. It is with reluctance that I leave 
this island of Cuba, the largest of the Antilles, where so 
much could be done in the way of exploration, and where 
so little has been accomplished (where, doubtless, there is 
still a field for the enterprising ethnologist) ; but I must 
now call attention to another of the Antillean group, of 
scarcely less importance. Jamaica, though it did not 
immediately follow in the series of Spanish discoveries, 
was brought into prominence soon after the first settlement 
was accomplished in Haiti. Discovered by Columbus in 
May, 1494, it was on the north coast of this island that he 
was wrecked, on his last voyage, in 1503. It was in 
February, 1504, that Columbus imposed upon the credulous 
natives in that famous prediction of the lunar eclipse, by 
which he compelled them to supply him with provisions 
for months, and without which he would have perished, 
as he was a twelve-month on the island, without means of 
escape, 

Jamaica was a very populous island, the hills and valleys 
swarming with Indians ; but they likewise perished under 
the exactions of the Spaniards. The first Spanish settle- 
ment was commenced in 1509, and shortly after that the 
natives began to decrease rapidly. History is silent as to 
the date of their final disappearance, but at the time of the 
first English invasion, in 1596, there were none left. 
Xaymaca, the Land-of-Springs, with its fertile soil and 
beautiful pimento groves, was soon left desolate, so far as the 
aboriginal inhabitants were concerned. Their number was 
estimated at above 60,000 ; Sir Hans Sloane, an historian 



14 

of Jamaica, writing about 1670, says: "In some small 
time, the Indian inhabitants, to the number of 60,000, 
were all destroyed by the severities of the Spaniards ; I 
have seen in the woods many of their bones, in caves, 
which some people think were of such as had voluntarily 
inclosed or immured themselves, in order to be starved 
to death." He also mentions a man who saw, about 1677, 
*'a cave in which lay human bones, all in order; also 
pots and urns, wherein were bones of men and children. 
These pots were oval, and large, of a reddish dirty color; 
on the upper part of the rim or ledge there stood out an 
ear, on which were made some lines. The negroes had 
removed most of these pots to boil their meat in. " I am 
thus particular in introducing this evidence of an eye- 
witness of that time so long ago, since very few objects 
pertaining to the Jamaican aborigines have been found. 
At the recent exposition in Jamaica, in 1891, were many 
specimens of aboriginal implements, such as have been 
already described ; but the island itself was not very fully 
represented. 

Recurring again to the historian, Leslie, who wrote in 
1740: "The Indians soon felt the dismal effects of giving 
faith to the Spaniards, who began a miserable havock : 
butchered, murdered and destroyed, in a few years, no less 
than 60,000 of the inhabitants and scarce left one alive. 
Some retired to the woods, and absconded in the caves and 
fortresses, whither they were pursued by the tyrants and 
cut to pieces. Jamaica was before this one of the best- 
peopled of all the Antilles, but such was the destructive 
slaughter of the Spaniards that the very name of Indian 
was, in a few years, rooted out, and none left to preserve 
the memory of that once flourishing people. " 

Gomara says, that the Spaniards made slaves of the 
Indians for various trivial reasons : as, because they ate 
insects and maggots (probably locusts, and larvffi of the 
palm-beetle) ; that they intoxicated themselves with wine 



15 

of maize and other native plants ; smoked tobacco, and 
plucked their beards out by the roots. But, on the other 
hand, the natives, who were notoriously abstemious, were 
shocked and disgusted at the enormous appetites of the 
Spaniards, and at their revels and licentiousness. By con- 
suming the scant crops of the Indians, who only provided 
themselves from year to year, and by debauching their 
wives and daughters, famine and disease were soon familiar 
spectres among these people who had hitherto lived in 
health and happiness. Speaking of the Indians in Jamaica, 
two hundred years ago. Sir Hans Sloane says : "They are 
not natives of the island, they being all destroyed by the 
Spaniards, but are usually brought by surprise from the 
Musquitos or from Florida, or such as were slaves to the 
Spaniards and taken from them by the English. They are 
very good hunters and fishers, but are naught at working 
in the field or slavish work, and if checht or drubbed are 
good for nothing, therefore are very gently treated and 
well fed." This naive confession as to the treatment of the 
slaves and Indians, in relation to their white masters, 
should have given the first-named a hint ; indeed, the 
escaped negroes, or maroons, did profit by it, and held 
themselves aloof in the woods and mountains. 

The Indians of Jamaica impressed Columbus most favor- 
ably, if we may believe the accounts he left of his 
discovery and first meeting with them. They possessed 
great canoes capable of carrying some eighty or a hundred 
warriors each : the first cacique to greet him came out in 
a beautiful canoe, in the prow of which stood the standard- 
bearer, "clad in a mantle of variegated feathers, with a 
tuft of gay plumes on his head, and bearing in his hand a 
fluttering white banner. Two Indians, with caps or 
helmets of feathers of similar shape and color, and their 
faces painted, beat upon tabors ; two others held trumpets 
of a fine black wood, ingeniously carved. " The two daugh- 
ters of the cacique, "beautiful in form and countenance," 



16 

were naked, but unabashed, and of modest demeanor. 
Around the head of the chief was a band of stones of 
various colors, two plates of gold were suspended from his 
ears by rings of very small green stones, and from a neck- 
lace of white beads was hung another plate of "guanin" or 
inferior gold, in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, while a girdle 
of stones was worn around his waist. His wife had on an 
apron of cotton, with similar adornments to the chief, and 
bands around her arms, while the girls wore no ornament, 
save their native modesty and a girdle of green stones. 

How soon these peaceful and happy people were made to 
sufier want, and experience all the horrors of slavery, 
eventually to be exterminated, we have already seen. Of 
gold and precious stones, the Spaniards obtained little in 
Jamaica, the few articles found in possession of the natives 
having, probably, been obtained from Haiti, or the coast 
of Verngua ; but some of their implements of warfare and 
domestic life have been recovered by later investigators, 
differing in no important particulars from those of Cuba 
and Haiti. 

One of the few deposits of ancient pottery and imple- 
ments has been described by Lady Edith Blake, the tal- 
ented consort of the present Governor of Jamaica, Sir 
Henry Blake. Her description may be found in a maga- 
zine published at Kingston, the '' Victoria Quarterly," and 
is entitled "The Northbrook Kitchen-Midden." About 
six miles to the east of Kingston, she says, on ground 
sloping gently down to the Liguanea Plain, is the site of an 
ancient Indian settlement. "To the east the field is 
abriiptly terminated by a sudden dip and bank of some six- 
teen or eighteen feet in height. On digging into this bank, 
layer upon layer of shells are found, mingled with pottery 
more or less broken, a few small bones, and now and then a 
stone hatchet. Here and there, some of the shells show traces 
of fire. The pottery is of different degrees of thickness, 
and we foiuid a few bits that bore traces of ornamentation. 



17 

The clay of which it was made is coarse and largely mixed 
with sand and small calcareous pebbles, forming a cement 
which seems to have been baked rather than burned, the 
heat not being sufficient to fuse or materially alter the peb- 
bles. Some pieces bear traces of what seems to have been 
glazing. The attempts at ornamentation are exceedingly 
rough and such as a primitive people first essay by indent- 
ing the clay before being baked with the point of a stick or 
a sharp stone. The large proportion of pottery intermixed 
with the shells shows that this must have been a permanent 
settlement, — in short, this picturesque bank, with its wav- 
ing grasses and sweet flowers, is nothing more or less than 
the refuse-heap of some old Indian town. . . . The stone 
hatchets (commonly known as 'thunderbolts') that have 
been found have, I believe, been broken or chipped speci- 
mens. . . . The shells are such as are still found in Kingston 
harbor, and the contents of which are to this day used as 
food ; therefore this heap was made at a period not geologi- 
cally remote. The land-shells are all the Jielix acuta, 
which is peculiar to Jamaica." 

While Sir Henry was Governor of the Bahamas, Lady 
Blake made exhaustive collections of Indian relics, visiting 
personally most of the principal islands, and also painted a 
series of water-colors of the indigenous plants of the 
islands, well illustrating the extensive flora. When I was 
in Jamaica, in 1891, she was engaged on a similar series of 
that island's flowering plants ; and was industriously collect- 
ing Indian antiquities. An invitation which she gave me 
to visit and open another kitchen-midden, I was obliged to 
decline, from lack of time ; but that there is still a field for 
investigation in Jamaica, I yet believe. 

Haiti. — We will now turn to that island reached by the 
first navigators from Spain after Cuba, called by the natives 
Bohio or Babeque, and Quisqueya, and named by Colum- 
bus, Espanola ; now known as Haiti and Santo Domingo. 

Without entering into the particulars of that first voyage 



18 

along the north coast of Haiti, we may note that there 
Columbus first found natives in great numbers, with fixed 
settlements, and in possession of gold actually obtained in 
the country of their residence. Coasting this beautiful 
country, interchanging courtesies with the natives, who 
were soon to feel the weight of his sword, the great navi- 
gator finally reached the bay of Cape Haitien, where he 
lost his flag-ship on a reef some five miles distant from 
shore, and was rescued from his perilous position by the 
native chieftain, or cacique, Guacanagari, whose settlement 
was called Guarico. 

The wreckage of the flag-ship, the Santa Maria, was all 
recovered and taken ashore to the Indian village, which 
occupied the site of a small fishing-village now known as 
Petit Anse. Finding his remaining vessels too small to 
transport to Spain the crews of all three caravels, Colum- 
bus decided to erect a fort near Guarico, calling it Navidad, 
and leaving in it a garrison of forty men. I have investi- 
gated the site of the fort and village, and had the pleasure 
of discovering an ancient anchor, which came out of the 
Santa Maria and which was exhibited last year at the Ex- 
position, in the Convent of La Rabida. More gold was 
found here in possession of the Indians than at any place 
previously visited ; Guacanagari wore a golden crown, and 
also several of the sub-chiefs adorned their brows with 
ornaments of the precious metal. Finding that the Span- 
iards would exchange trinkets, such as hawksbells, for nug- 
gets of gold, the natives swarmed about the caravel, holding 
up lumps of it, for which they desired the paltry trifles. 
Columbus assured his sovereigns, later on, that he felt con- 
fident that a ton of gold could be collected by the garrison 
of Navidad before his return. This gold came from the 
interior of the island, and from a district the natives called 
Cibao, — which the Spaniard thought could be no other 
than the famous Cipango, of which he had read in Marco 
Polo. It is a mountainous district around the head- 



19 

waters of the Rio Yaqui, which I visited later, and pro- 
cured therefrom some grains of gold, also a nugget 
weighing half an ounce, seeing several others, among them 
one weighing five ounces. So, it seems, the auriferous 
nature of the newly-discovered country was not exag- 
gerated. 

At a banquet given by Guacanagari, bountiful supplies of 
cassavi, or native bread, ajes, nutritive roots, fish, utias, 
and fruits were spread before the guests. The cacique and 
his associate chiefs were cleanly in their habits and of ex- 
cellent demeanor, reminding one of the accounts given of 
Montezuma and his Mexicans, as found by Cortez, at a 
similar banquet furnished by aboriginal Americans to the 
visiting Europeans. 

Sailing for Spain, Columbus did not return for a year, 
and then found his fortress destroyed and the garrison 
massacred — a fate these lawless Spaniards had brought 
upon themselves. For, if there is anything evident in the 
narration of this voyage along the coast of Haiti, it is the 
gentle nature and inoffensiveness of the natives. In Decem- 
ber, 1493, the town of Isabella was founded on the north 
coast of Santo Domingo, and thence excursions and raids 
were made into the interior, to the Cibao, and settlements 
made at Jacagua, Concepcion de la Vega, etc. The first 
interior fortress was the outpost of Santo Tomas, whence 
the gold was derived, and which, as well as all the other set- 
tlements, I myself have visited. From the Hill of Santo 
Cerro, overlooking the vast plain called by Columbus, from 
its exceeding beauty, the Vega Heal, this man watched the 
progress of the great battle between his troops and the 
Indians, which finally settled the fate of the latter, and led 
to the subjection of all the natives of the island. 

Without pursuing farther this subject of the subjugation 
of the Indians, at the recital of which one cannot but be 
moved with indignation, I will proceed to indicate merely 
the extent and distribution of the native tribes at the advent 



20 

of the Europeans. The island was divided into five cacique- 
ships, ruled over by hereditary chiefs ; the first to be 
encountered by the Spaniards was that of Guacanagari, 
which comprised the territory now known as Haiti, at least 
the northern part, as far as the river Yaqui ; this was soon 
subjugated, and the chieftain himself put to the sword. 
The second territory was that of Guarionex, extending from 
the Yaqui, through its valley and the Royal Vega, probably 
as far as the bay of Samana. The interior was in posses- 
sion of Caonabo, a cacique of Carib birth, and an intruder; 
the only one who seemed a born fighter and initiated active 
hostilities against the Spaniards ; his country included the 
Cibao, or gold country. The' fourth province, Higuey, 
included the eastern part of the island, and was ruled by 
Cacique Cotubanama. The fifth, called Xaragua, comprised 
the southern and southwestern portions, and was held by 
Behechio, whose sister, Anacaona, was the wife of Caonabo. 
After the Indians of the north coast had been subjected, 
and Caonabo captured, Behechio was murdered, and later, 
Anacaona was burned at the stake, having succeeded to the 
province of Xaragua. The caciques were soon murdered, 
all of them, and the war of extermination begun, in 1495 
occurring the great battle that completely reduced the 
Indians to subjection. By the end of the century, or in 
seven short years, very few of the original inhabitants were 
left alive ! 

The natives of the Greater Antilles, s'dys a reliable his- 
torian, and also of the Bahamas, " were considered by the 
Caribs to be descended from the Arrowacks of Guiana, a 
race of Indians to whose noble qualities the most honorable 
testimony is borne, — and here all inquiry concerning the 
origin of our islanders seems to terminate." At the time of 
the discovery, Las Casas computed them at above 6,000,000, 
but doubtless this was an exaggerated estimate : those of 
Hispaniola, Oviedo estimated at 1,000,000, and Martyr at 
1,200,000. They were so numerous that Las Casas says 



21 

the islands swarmed with Indians, as an ant-hill with ants. 
Edwards, historian of Jamaica, compares them with the 
Otaheites, "with whom they seem to have many qualities 
in common." They cultivated large areas in maize and 
manioc, made immense canoes from the cedar and cotton- 
wood (ceiba) trees, which they gunwaled and pitched with 
bitumen. They wore a cotton cloth around the waist, 
most of them, while the Caribs of the southern islands went 
entirely naked. They were of good shape and height, but 
less robust than the Caribs ; their color, a deep, clear brown. 
All the islanders compressed the head artificially, but in 
different manner; the Caribs "elevated the forehead, 
making the head look like the two sides of a square ; the 
natives of the larger islands, the occiput, rendering the 
crown of the head so thick that a Spanish broadsword 
would sometimes break on it." It is said to have been a 
common test of skill among the Spanish settlers as to which 
of them could most sidlfuUy crack open an Indian's skull 
or neatly decapitate him. Las Casas testifies to Indians 
being burned alive and roasted over a slow fire. These 
things are mentioned as showing some of the causes of ex- 
termination, although the chief cause operating was the 
excessive labor in the mines, initiated by Columbus. And 
yet, says Martyr, "theirs was an honest countenance, 
coarse but not gloomy ; for it was enlivened by confidence 
and softened by compassion." We know that they had 
native songs and hymns, called ariefos, an idea of the Deity, 
as well as a multitude of minor gods; that they made 
articles of pottery, common vessels, as well as some with 
adornments; hammocks, chairs of wood (Bartholomew 
Columbus was presented with fourteen chairs of ebony and 
sixty vessels, "ornamented with fantastic figures of living 
animals," when he once visited Anacoana) ; and obtained 
gold from the mountain streams. Gold, or the search for 
gold, was their curse, and their death-knell was sounded 
when, in 1595, all the Indians were divided into encomi- 



22 

endas and repar'timientos, and assigned for labor in the field 
and mine. 

Without entering further into detail, the Spaniards are 
said to have reduced the Indians from 1,000,000 to 60,000 
in fifteen years. The only sustained revolt by the Indians 
was led by a cacique, Henrique, who maintained it for 
fifteen years, and finally obtained honorable terms of peace. 
But it was then too late ; and, though they were assigned a 
district for themselves, they continued to waste away ; in 
1535, says Oviedo, not above 500 natives were alive in the 
island; in 1585, Sir Francis Drake reported not an Indian 
left alive. Thus we see that their extermination was accom- 
plished in less than a century after their discovery. To-day, 
it is needless to say, not one Indian can be found in that 
island where the first were found, nor any authenticated 
traces of intimate admixture of their blood. Not a pure 
blood Indian was left at Boya, the settlement assigned to 
Henrique, says an explorer of the last century, Moreau de 
Saint Mery, in his work published in 1798. 

From the few remains existing of their works, as exhib- 
ited in minor articles of domestic use and implements of 
warfare, we may assume that the natives of Santo Domingo 
were in the neolithic stage of civilization, possessing polished 
stone implements and crude pottery, but giving no evidence 
of having ever produced works of art or architectural 
structures of merit. They had no knowledge of either 
bronze, copper or iron ; gold being the only metal found in 
use among them. Considering the size of the island, the 
early period of its introduction to European civilization, and 
the thoroughness with which every part was explored by 
the conquistadores, very little has been recovered from the 
aboriginal inhabitants. 

Said a celebrated French professor to a resident of Santo 
Domingo, only a few years ago: "The most acceptable 
present you can make our museum is a skull of one of the 
aborigines of your island ; for there is not one in all Europe, 



23 

to-day." However true this statement may be, it is certain 
that crania of that island are desiderata in our own 
museums, and I have yet to meet with any, though there 
may be some here. A learned doctor whom I met in 
Puerto Plata, north coast of Santo Domingo, furnished me 
with a description and photograph of two skulls which he 
found in a cave, and which he assigned to the Ciguayan 
tribe that once dwelt in the north part of the island. 
The type is that of the Ciguayan, it was found in a cave 
which was filled with niches, and probably had served as 
an ancient burial-place. It had never been visited by col- 
lectors, was remote from inhabited places, and, moreover, 
the shape of the skull precludes the possibility of its being 
other than that of a native American. It is the skull of 
a young man, prognathous, with facial angle of about 75 
degrees, and with a flattening of the frontal, or occipital, 
that gives to the crown a pyramidal shape whose vertex 
corresponds to the parietal protuberances.^ 

The same gentleman has a small collection of aboriginal 
relics ; as, one of the wooden seats, mentioned as occurring 
in the Bahamas, carved amulets of stone, and some battle- 
axes. Several small collections are to be found throughout 
the island, the most notable being that of the Archbishop 
of Santo Domingo, at the capital. In that are mortars and 
carved pestles, " mealing-stones, " amulets, "mammiform 
stones," such as are found in Puerto Rico, and some pot- 
tery. The heads of the pestles are carved into likeness of 
owl and human faces, and also the terra-cotta images, 
or figurines. 

I myself procured several terra-cotta images, small and 
delicately worked, one of a vase with curious combination 
of owl and human face, another with a face crowned, or 
wreathed, also a small earthen jug with a whistle in its 
nose. The historians tell us that the Indians possessed 

1 " Una Vivienda Primitiva " and " Una Galavera de Indio, " by Dr. A. 
Lleuas, in the newspaper, " M Porvenir, " of Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo. 



24 

many images, which they called Zemes, or Oemis, and 
which were considered as the family idols, their penates. 
These were mostly of clay or terra-cotta, but some have 
been found carved from wood. In the Smithsonian are two 
notable carvings, one that of a man, made from a single 
log, and the other a group : two human figures seated in a 
canopied chair. These were found in a cave near the 
ruins of Isabella, the first city founded by Columbus, on 
the north coast of Santo Domingo. I saw the old negro 
who discovered them, some years ago, and he described 
their position, and the great fright they gave him. They 
were placed in a rude niche beneath an overhanging rock, 
at the entrance to a deep cavern ; and doubtless there they 
had remained for at least four hundred years, — since the 
advent of the Spaniards, — and how much longer no one 
knows. Dr. Llenas, the studious physician at Puerto Plata, 
describes an aboriginal workshop he investigated in a cave 
in the Santo Domingo mountains, where he found many 
fragments of chipped tools, but no perfect specimen. The 
late Dr. Gabb sent some valuable specimens to the United 
States, including the wooden statues above-mentioned, and 
one of the stools from the Bahamas. 
1^ In this paper, it will not be possible to do more than 
glance at the Indians of Santo Domingo, and indicate merely 
their remains ; but let it suffice for me to add, that the island 
presents a rich field for anthropological research, and to 
express the hope that it will some time be thoroughly 
investigated. The southwestern portion, especially, where 
dwelt Anacoana and Henriquillo, is rich in what I may 
term surface indications ; and it is in this district, in a val- 
ley in the mountains, that the remains of a large amphi- 
theatre, enclosed with great rocks, are to-day seen, near the 
spot where Caonabo was captured. This amphitheatre is 
supposed to have served as the arena for the exercise of a 
peculiar game of ball in which the Indians indulged, some- 
what similar to that to-day practised by the Basques. 



25 

Island of Puerto Kico. Lying near to the island of 
Santo Domingo, and separated from it by a narrow chan- 
nel, is Puerto Rico, which was discovered by Columbus, on 
his second voyage, but not settled until 1508. Ponce 
de Leon, who afterwards became famous through his search 
for the fountain of youth, overran the island with his 
soldiers, finding there a people similar to those of Santo 
Domingo, cultivators of the soil, and following the pursuits 
of peace. 

It was not many years, however, before these peaceful 
islanders shared the fate of the others, and the populous 
country was devastated. The last of them perished long 
ago, and so long that not even tradition can inform us as to 
the uses of the numerous articles they once manufactured 
and have left behind them. But of all the West-Indian ab- 
origines, these were farthest advanced in the crude arts 
they practised. Their pottery is highly ornamented, their 
stone implements are unique, "their implements of indus- 
try, so far as we have recovered them, are the most beauti- 
ful in the world ; their artists were prodigies in design and 
workmanship. " One of the finest collections of the produc- 
tions of the inhabitants of the islands in ancient times, and 
the most complete of any from the Caribbean region, is in 
the Smithsonian Institution, the gift of the late George Lati- 
mer, of San Juan de Puerto Rico, where it is known as the 
"Latimer Collection." ^ It has been fully described, in an 
illustrated paper, published in 1877, one of the most valu- 
able contributions to ethnographical literature of modern 
times. Without enumerating them, the articles may be 
described, in the classification of the writer, as "pottery, 
celts, smoothing-stones, mealing-stones, stools, discoidal 
and spheroidal stones, beads, cylinders, amulets, rude 
pillar-stones, mammiform stones, masks and collars." 
Although most are peculiar to the island of Puerto Rico 

1 " The Latimer Collection of Antiquities from Puerto Eico, " by Prof. Otis 
T. Mason. Washington, 1877. 



26 

(the celts, of course, having the general resemblance to 
others found throughout the world, — that is, to implements 
of like character), there are several types found nowhere 
else. These are the so-called mammiform stones and the 
collars. The first are suggestive of a human form buried 
beneath a mountain : ' ' On the back of the prostrate form is 
a conoid prominence, beautifully rounded up, straight, or 
slightly concave in outline in front, a little convex in the 
rear, swelling out on one side more than the other, and de- 
scending more or less lower than the top of the head and 
of the rump, so as to form anterior and posterior furrows." 
The name is suggested by the conical or sub-conical protu- 
berance, and, of course, is wholly arbitrary. But, any one 
who has seen the rounded and pyramidal hills and moun- 
tains of Puerto Rico, will not be at loss for the origin of 
suggestion to the aboriginal artist. They are as truly sui 
generis as the "collars," which, likewise, are peculiar to 
this island. This appellation has been applied to the latter 
objects from their resemblance to horse-collars, though 
they are of stone, each carved from a single piece. They 
vary in length from nineteen to twenty-three inches, and in 
breadth from fifteen to seventeen. Many specimens are 
shown in the Smithsonian collection, in various stages of 
elaboration, but the majority are beautifully finished and 
polished, with bosses and panels, sometimes on one side and 
sometimes on the other. This peculiarity of ornamentation 
has given rise to the distinction of right and left shouldered, 
assuming that they may have served some use in pairs. 
Just what that use was, no one can tell, the historians being 
silent on the subject ; but I was told, when in Puerto Rico, 
by an old priest, that the Indians made them to be buried 
with them in their graves. One would spend a lifetime 
laboriously carving out this solid stone collar, that when he 
died it might be placed over his head, thus securely fasten- 
ing him to his last resting-place, and defying the efibrts of 
the devil to remove him. 



27 

But, in this explanation, one may detect the ecclesiastical 
intrusion ; for no theologer, no matter of what belief, is 
happy, unless he can fasten upon an aboriginal people a 
firm belief in a devil, or some evil genius of the supernat- 
ural world. However, this explanation is as good as any, 
since no one can offer a better. The same may be said of 
the objects called "masks," human faces carved of solid 
stone, and which may have been used as club-heads or 
banner-stones. There are also some seventy small chal- 
cedony beads, which, says the learned writer of the mono- 
graph in question, Prof. Mason, "is the most remarkable 
sample of aboriginal stone polishing and drilling that has 
ever come under my observation." This opinion was given 
some seventeen years ago ; but certainly nothing like these 
beads has been since obtained from the West Indies. 

The natives of Puerto Rico possessed the same animal 
and plant resources as those of Santo Domingo, the flora 
and fauna being similar, and their dwellings were formed 
from the same materials ; in neither island are there remains 
of stately structures or indications of any buildings con- 
structed of less perishable materials than palm-leaves and 
native woods. I am inclined to believe that whatever 
specimens may have been found in the adjacent islands 
of the so-called collars or mammiform stones, came from 
this of Puerto Rico. E.eo:arding the origin of the "stone 
stools," which have been found far-distant, in the Bahamas, 
carved out of wood, but of shape so similar that there is no 
mistaking their identity ; I think they may have been made 
in Santo Domingo, as well as in Cuba and Puerto Rico. 

We have thus briefly reviewed the chief and characteris- 
tic articles found in possession of the natives of the, Greater 
Antilles at the time of discovery, or since found under such 
circumstances and in such localities as would indicate their 
undoubted origin. 

As I have shown already, not a single descendant of the 
millions — or many thousands — found at the time of dis- 



28 

covery, remains in any island of the group. All have 
perished, leaving behind them only these mute memorials 
of their former existence there; and all we have to inform 
us else, is the scant information to be gleaned from the 
pages of historians, who, at the best, could not appreciate 
the value to the present age of ethnological material con- 
sidered strictly as such. Only in casual manner, and 
merely as incidental to the historical narrative, are we 
informed of the most valuable "finds" of Columbus when 
he discovered this so-called New World. 

The Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. But, although 
no living link connects the present with the first voyage of 
Columbus, yet, as we know, there are to-day alive some 
descendants of the people discovered on his second voyage. 
It was in 1493, that, sailing farther to the south than 
previously, he first made land about midway of the chain 
of islands now known as the Lesser Antilles, extending in 
a general line from Puerto Rico to the north coast of South 
America, describing the arc of a circle more or less regular, 
and within the tenth and twentieth degrees of north 
latitude. Strictly defined, they lie between the twelfth and 
eighteenth, and are mainly of volcanic origin. Here dwelt 
the Caribs, a warlike people, who had conquered all who 
had hitherto opposed them, at the time of their discovery 
by Europeans, and who had reached as far northward as 
Puerto Rico, in their devastating advance. The residents 
of that island, as well as those of Santo Domingo, and even 
of Jamaica and the Bahamas, were living in dread of their 
incursions, at the time a more powerful and remorseless 
enemy appeared, in the shape of the foreign adventurers 
from Spain. Beyond Puerto Rico, looking east and south, 
no trace exists of the residence in the lesser islands of the 
same people who inhabited the Greater Antilles, except in 
vestiges of subjugated tribes. 

Columl^us first landed at the island of Guadaloupe, there 
making the important discovery of the Caribs, or can- 



29 

nibals, — both words derived from the language of these 
people themselves. He found there natives less advanced 
than those of the northern islands in the primitive pursuits 
of peace, but more inured to war, braver, and less disposed 
to submit. 

Their first reception of the interlopers was a declaration 
of war, which they sustained so successfully that the 
Spaniards left them alone for many years, only making 
descents upon them when they could take them at a disad- 
vantage and enslaving them under an act which allowed the 
capture and transportation of such as should be proven 
cannibals. After the enslavement of the rapidly-decreasing 
natives of the larger islands was prohibited, it was most 
surprising to find how many "cannibals" the Spaniards 
discovered. I do not think it has been successfully main- 
tained that the natives of the Lesser Antilles were anthro- 
pophagous, but, as it suited the purposes of the Spaniards to 
have them declared so, thus they have remained, with that 
stigma attached to their name, to this day. 

At all events, they were too disagreeable for their discov- 
erers to desire further acquaintance with them, except occa- 
sionally, and to this fact is due the survival of their present 
descendants to-day. Taking the islands in sequence, from 
Puerto Eico eastward, the first group we find is that of the 
Virgins, discovered by Columbus on his second voyage to 
America, and so named by him. Were this a narrative of 
his discoveries, I should like to linger by the way, and 
point out to my readers the many incidents of that voyage, 
and describe the islands as I myself have seen them ; but I 
cannot allow myself that pleasure, but must confine my 
attention to the facts bearing upon the ancient inhabitants 
and their present remains. I have not discovered, nor 
have there been found, many relics of the natives of the 
Virgins differing from those in other islands farther south, 
and more numerous. 

In the island of St. John are some rocks covered with 



30 

incised figures, which are called the " Carib rocks," — rude 
petroglyphs without meaning ; but undoubtedly of aborigi- 
nal origin. Throughout the Greater Antilles, I cannot 
recall any of these petroglyphs, and they seem to be pecu- 
liar to the Carib area, other and finer ones being found in 
the island of St. Vincent. The descendants of the Caribs 
to-day are confined to two islands only, Dominica (which 
was the first land sighted by Columbus on his second voy- 
age) and St. Vincent, the former between latitude fifteen 
and sixteen north, and the latter in latitude thirteen. They 
are described in my book on these islands,^ published fifteen 
years ago, and I will not repeat my descriptions, except to 
state that there are some twenty families of pure blood 
remaining in Dominica, and perhaps half a dozen in St. 
Vincent. There may be three hundred in each island, but 
so intimately mixed with the negroes that their distinguish- 
ing features are nearly obliterated. They dwell on the 
windward or eastern coast of either island, in each having 
a portion of land assigned them, which they cultivate in 
common, or which, at least, is not owned in severalty. 
They subsist upon the fruits of their agricultural labors and 
the sea, eked out with the scant products of the chase, con- 
sisting mainly of small birds, agoutis, and iguanas. Their 
huts are almost as primitive as at the time of discovery, 
being constructed of palm logs and thatched with palm 
leaves. In Dominica most of them speak the French patois 
(a legacy from the former owners of the island), and in 
St. Vincent, English ; being Catholics in the former and 
Church of England in the latter, as to their religious faith. 
Ail vestiges of their native religion have apparently disap- 
peared, although they still have a belief in the jumbies and 
wood-spirits of the negroes. They are to-daj^ gentle and 
easily managed, showing no trace of the warlike spirit of 
their ancestors ; in shape they are robust, well-formed, with 



1 See " Camps in the Caribbees," by F. A. Ober. Boston, 1879. 



31 

small hands and feet, in color decidedly light, and some 
even fair, their complexion being of a yellowish cast. 
They make canoes and woven baskets, after the manner of 
the aborigines, are skilled fishers and sometimes hunters, 
and are altogether trusty and superior in many respects to 
the blacks. 

Several writers have described the Caribs during various 
periods in their history since coming into notice, but I will 
select from them one who wrote about two hundred years 
ago, whose pages bear every evidence of honesty and 
authenticity. At that time the English were mainly in pos- 
session of the islands. He says: "They go stark naked, 
both men and women ; though the Christians have conversed 
very much amongst them, yet have all their persuasions to 
induce them to cover themselves been to no purpose. . . . 
They change their natural color by dyeing their bodies with 
roucou, which makes them red all over. . . . They also 
adorn the crown of the head with a little hat made of bird's 
feathers of different colors. . . . They bore their ears, 
nose, lips, for the insertion of ornaments. . . . About 
their necks they wear necklaces made of the bones of their 
enemies, teeth of agoutis, etc. . . . On great occasions, 
they wear scarfs and girdles of feathers. . . . Their most 
valued ornaments were gorgets of copper, obtained from 
the Arrowaks by plunder, crescent-shaped and shining, and 
these are, most frequently, the only possessions they leave 
their children at death. . . . They wear cotton cloth and 
can dye it in various colors, chiefly red ; they had ham- 
mocks when found by Columbus. . . . They made fine 
pottery, which they baked in kilns, and also wove fine 
baskets. . . . They cultivated their land in common. . . . 
They buried the corpse of a chief, or head of a family, in 
the centre of his own dwelling. . . . Their heaven seems 
to have been a sort of Mohammedan paradise of houris and 
harems for the brave. . . . They raised rustic altars, 
placing upon them fruits and flowers. . . . The Caribs have 



32 

an ancient and natural language, such as is peculiar to 
them, and also a bastard speech, with foreign words, chief- 
ly Spanish, intermixed. Among themselves they always 
use the natural language, in conversing with Christians the 
bastard speech. . . . The women also have a different 
speech from the men. ... It hath been observed that 
the men are less amorous than the women ; both are natu- 
rally chaste ; and when those of other nations look even 
earnestly at them, and laugh at their nakedness, they were 
wont to say to them, ' you are to look on us only between 
both the eyes.' . . . Yet, it must be confessed that some 
have degenerated from that chastity, and many other virtues 
of their ancestors, the Europeans having taught them many 
vices, — to the perpetual infamy of the Christian name. . . 
They are great lovers of cleanliness, bathing every day ; 
are generous, hospitable and honest. . . . It is also a man- 
ifest truth, confirmed by daily experience in America, that 
the holy sacrament of baptism being conferred on these sav- 
ages, the devil never beats or torments them afterwards as 
long as they live.' 

"The Carib boys were compelled to pierce their food 
suspended from a tree with an arrow, before they could eat 
it. . . . They are said to have used poisoned arrows, dip- 
ping them in what must have been the urrari poison, ob- 
tained from Guiana. . . . Like many natives, they eradi- 
cated the beard and the hair on other parts of the body. . . 
They compressed the skulls of new-born infants ; and a 
hatred of the Arrowaks was instilled. . . . Their cabins 
were built of poles fixed circularly in the ground and drawn 
together at the top, covered with palm leaves, and in the 
centre of each village was a building larger than the others 
for public assemblage. 

" The Caribbeans are a handsome, well-shaped people, of a 
smiling countenance, middle stature, having broad shoulders 



iSee Davies's " History of the Caribby Islands." London, 1666. 



33 

and large buttocks, and most of them in good plight. Their 
mouths are not over large, and their teeth are perfectly white 
and close. True it is, their complexion is of an olive 
color, naturally ; their foreheads and noses are flat, not natu- 
rally, but by artifice ; for their mothers crush them down 
at their birth, as also during the time they suckle them, 
imagining it a kind of beauty and perfection. . . . They 
have large and thick feet, because they go barefoot, and 
withal so hard that they defie woods and rocks. . . . They 
believed in evil spirits, and sought to propitiate them by 
presents of game, fruits, etc. They believe that they have 
as many souls as they feel beatings of the arteries in their 
bodies, besides the principal one, which is in their heart, and 
goes to heaven with its god, who carries it thither, to live 
with other gods ; and they imagine they there live the same 
life as man lives here below. For they do not think the soul 
to be so far immaterial as to be invisible ; but they affirm it 
to be subtile, and of thin substance, as a purified body ; and 
they have but the same word to signify heart and soul. 
Other souls, not in the heart, reside in the forest and by the 
seashore ; the former they called Mabouyas, the latter Oume- 
kou. . . . They believe they go after death to live in certain 
fortunate islands, where they have Arrowak slaves to serve 
them, swim unwearied in placid streams, and eat of delicious 
fruits. ... Of the thunder, God's voice, they are extremely 
afraid. They were prone to leave their houses (huts) after 
the death of an inmate. It is related, that a young Carib, 
having been converted to Christianity and taken to France, 
where he was shown many strange things, at which he 
showed no astonishment, returned to his tribe, threw off the 
clothes of civilization, and painted his body with roucou, be- 
coming as wild a savage as before. ... As to the division 
of labor, the men made the huts and kept them in repair, 
procured fish and game, also labored some in the fields ; the 
women attended to the domestic duties, painted their hus- 
bands with roucou, and spun the cotton yarn, wove ham- 



34 

mocks, etc. They made fire by the friction of two sticks, 
and torches of candle-wood." 

The author quoted above appends an extensive vocabu- 
lary to his work, from which I extract a few words which, he 
says, were common between the Caribs and the Apalaches, 
of Florida : as, Cakomees, or little curiosities : Bouttou, a 
club of weighty wood ; Taumali, "a certain piquancy or 
deliciousness of taste"; Etonton, an enemy; Allouba, a 
bow ; Allouani, arrows ; Taonaba, a great pond ; Mabouya, 
an evil spirit; Akambouyi, the soul of man, etc. 

This much from the ancient writer, to explain the status 
of the Carib, as a savage, or semi-savage. Let us now 
turn to modern descriptions of him, as found in Guiana, 
his present home. As to the tribal name, a recent writer 
says: "The Arawak name for Carib Place, or home, is 
Caribisi; the Caribs style themselves, Garinya."^ Hum- 
boldt says : " They call themselves Carina, Calina, Callin- 
go. The Calibis (of Cayenne) and others, who originally 
inhabited the plains between the mountains of Caripe 
(Caribe) and the village of Maturin, also the native tribes 
of Trinidad, a)id the village of Cumana, are all tribes of 
the great Caribbee nation." Davies, the author previously 
quoted, says : " The ancient and natural inhabitants of the 
Caribbees, are those who have been called by some authors 
Cannibals, Anthropophagi, or Eaters of Men ; but most of 
others who have written of them commonly called them 
Caribbians, or Caribs ; but their primitive and originary 
name, and that which is pronounced with the most gravity, 
is Caniibes. They believe themselves descended from the 
Caribites, or Calibis, of the Main, in that country or prov- 
ince which is commonly called Guayana. The Caribs of 
St. Vincent said (1600) that their first insular ancestors 
were rebels against the Arrowaks, and retreated to the 
Caribbees (then inhabited by scattered Arrowaks), first to 
Tobago, and thence going still farther northward." 

1 " Among the Indians of Guiana," by E. F. Im Tburni. London, 1883. 



35 

The Indians of Guiana to-day, says a very thorough 
investigator, who published the results of his researches 
ten years ago,^ are divided into four branches, as the 
Warrau, Arawak, Wapiana, and the Carib. "The lan- 
guages of these four branches are quite distinct from each 
others and within the language are dialectic variations. . . 
A stranger finds it difficult to distinguish, merely from 
appearances, the different members of the respective tribes. 
. . . The Arawaks are slightly taller than the Warraus ; 
their bodies, though short and broad, are far better propor- 
tioned ; skin lighter in color ; expression of face brighter 
and more intelligent. . . . They are the most cleanly of all 
the Indians. . . . The Caribs are darker ; somewhat taller 
than the Arawaks, bodies better built; having, in appear- 
ance and in reality, far greater strength ; features coarser, 
with the appearance of greater power. . . . There is a 
constant enmity between Caribs and Arawaks. The Ara- 
waks to this day retain a timid dread of the Caribs, who 
repay the feeling with contempt. . . . The Caribs are the 
most warlike of all, especially the pure Caribs. . . . They 
are peculiar among the tribes, in that they occupy no 
particular district, but are scattered more or less thickly 
throughout the country. . . . They are the great pottery- 
makers. . . . The Caribs seem to represent migrations 
into the country already occupied by the other tribes, and 
may be contradistinguished as natives and stranger tribes ; 
the three branches of natives being all united by a common 
feeling of aversion to the (Jaribs, or strangers. . . . The 
natives all make their hammocks of the fiber of a palm 
( Mauritia Jlexuosa ) while the Caribs make theirs of cotton. 
. . . The fact that the true, or island Caribs, had two 
vocabularies, one used by the men, and the other by the 
women, has long been known." Humboldt alludes to this 
difference of speech, and it is mentioned in my " Camps in 



1 " Among the Indians of Guiana," by E. F. Im Thurm. London, 1883. 



36 

the Caribbees," so that I will not further auote, than to 
point out that he says : 

"The difference in the language of the two sexes is more 
striking among the people of the Carib race than among 
any other American nations. The pride of the Caribs led 
them to withdraw themselves from every other tribe, even 
from those with whom, by their language, they have 
affinity." It may be added, however, that this difference 
of language as between the sexes, among the Caribs, was 
supposed to have its origin in the fact that the women 
were of the Arawak tribes, captured by the Caribs, while 
the males were killed. "Among the true Caribs," says 
Im Thurm, "a two-inch broad band of cotton is knitted 
round each ankle, and just below the knee of every young 
female child, and this band is never removed during life, or 
if removed, is immediately replaced. The consequence 
is that the muscles of the calf swell out to an abnormal 
degree between these bands," etc. This peculiarity, of the 
swollen calf, was noticed among the Caribs by the first 
discoverers, in 1493. "Every man wears a long strip of 
cloth between the legs and fastened to a belt, and the 
women a short apron, tied by strings around the waist. 
This apron is usually made of beads or of bright-colored 
seeds, in conventional patterns . . . The men also wear a 
necklace of white and shining peccary teeth, as well as an 
armlet . . . They paint their bodies and pull out all hairs 
not on the scalp. . . . For staining their skins and ham- 
mocks, the men nsQfaroah, — the deep red pulp around the 
seeds of the anatto (Bixa orellana), — as when first discov- 
ered. As ornaments, the true Caribs wear crescent-shaped 
nose-pieces and ear-distenders, as well as lip ornaments, 
crowns of feathers, feather ruffs, and short mantles of 
woven cotton ornamented with feathers. The women are 
less given to ornament, except that they wear great girdles 
of beads and bright seeds, etc. ; and as a tribe, they 
•are not prone to wear European clothing, save as single 



37 

garments, occasionally, and beads. . . . The Guiana Indians 
still make fire by rubbing two sticks together ; they make 
baskets similar to those now made by the West-Indian 
Caribs, as well as cassava sieves, matapies, or cassava 
strainers, and other articles of the Indian economy. . . . 
Cotton is preferred by the Caribs to all other fibers. They 
still use the tiki, or wooden war-club, the only aboriginal 
weapon now in use. . . . The celebrated ourali poison is 
made chiefly by a single tribe, the Macusis, and particular 
Indians. ... In the shell mounds, the objects found resem- 
ble those from the West Indies ; and human bones have been 
found split open, as if for their marrow. Of aboriginal art, 
as shown in paintings or carvings, there are few traces, the 
petroglyphs being few and very rude in design and execu- 
tion. . . . One practice still prevails among the Caribs of 
which we find no trace in the island : that is couvade, or male 
child-bed, when the man, at parturition, takes to his ham- 
mock, where he stays for days, and even weeks (if he be 
delicate), and is fed on gruel, abstains from smoking, and 
is comfortably coddled, while the poor woman attends 
to her hardly-interrupted domestic duties. In conclusion, 
as to the religion of the Guiana Caribs, it is a pure animism ; 
every Indian believes that he himself, and every human 
being, consists of two parts, a body and a soul, or spirit ; 
and moreover, that all other objects have the same quali- 
ties ; the whole Indian world swarms with spirits, good and 
evil. They do not believe in a spiritual hierarchy, — only 
in spirits that are, or once were, situated in material 
bodies of some kind, — and no apotheosis has of these 
made gods, or a God. . . . The Carib name for God, 
Tainosi^ means the Ancient One. ... As to scientific 
acquirements, the Indian, now, as in ancient times, is with- 
out even the rudiments of scientific thous^ht ..." 

Carib Petroglyphs, Implements, and Pottery. Were 
it not even that we still have evidence of the existence 
in the Carib area of Indians who dwell here, in the con- 



38 

tinued presence of their descendants, we should still be 
enabled to judge somewhat of the state of their civiliza- 
tion by their remains. I have mentioned the existence, in 
the island of St. John, one of the Virgin group, of rock- 
carvings ; near the other extreme of the Caribbean Chain, 
in the island of St. Vincent, in latitude 13 north, 5 degrees 
farther south, are several of these strange rocks. I have 
seen some half-dozen of these petroglyphs, in that island, 
which I visited three, and fifteen, years ago. Also, in the 
island of Guadaloupe, in latitude 16. are several others 
of similar character. Those that I photographed were all 
near the very spot where Columbus discovered the first 
Caribs, at Capes Terre, and near Three Rivers, island of 
Guadaloupe. The incised figures represent, rudely, heads 
adorned with plumes ; and other characters are found which 
cannot be adequately described. These petroglyphs are 
indubitably of Carib origin, being found only within the 
Carib area ; and so far as I am aware, few, if any similar, 
have been seen in the larger islands. The characters which 
do not rise to the dignity of hieroglyphics or ideographs, 
have no coherent sequence or continuity, only a general 
resemblance. It would be interestino; to gather all these 
and submit them for study to a competent body of ethnolo- 
gists but I doubt if great results would be obtained. 

More abundant and conclusive in their testimony, are 
the numerous minor objects of Carib art and workmanship, 
which have been, from time to time, gathered in the vari- 
ous islands. In that same island of Guadaloupe exists 
to-day, what is, perhaps, the largest and most nearly com- 
plete collection of Carib implements in the world, gathered 
together and owned by a learned collector, M. Louis 
Guesde. It is described, with numerous types delineated, 
in the Smithsonian Report for 1884, by Prof. Mason, to 
whom the world is so deeply indebted for valuable mono- 
graphs on kindred subjects.^ I myself saw the collection, 
1 " Smithsonian Beport, " Washington, D. C, 1884, pp. 731-837. 



39 

two years ago, and can testify to its value and complete- 
ness. It is for sale, and, although M. Guesde asks what 
seems a very large price for it, still, I think it should 
be secured for some American museum, and so trust. 
Referring those who may desire further particulars of the 
Carib relics especially to that paper, I will merely add, 
that these remains are in the shape of celts, of jade or 
jadeite, and serpentine, beautifully polished, discoidal and 
spheroidal stones, battle-axes (these of volcanic stone), 
semi-lunar and crescentic stones, and many odd shapes us 
yet unclassified, as axes with notched heads, horn-shaped 
and symmetrical, etc., etc. It has been said that no flaked 
or chipped specimen has been found within the Cai-ib area, 
but in this collection are at least two, though M. Guesde 
thinks they came from the South American continent. A 
few idols, or figures in clay, are shown, as well as beads, 
amulets, perforated stones, mortars, dishes of stone, awls, 
hooks and perhaps harpoons ; two vases, also, one of 
guiacum wood, which is hard and durable, disks or quoits, 
mealing-stones, pestles and chisels. 

In this connection, I may be pardoned for alluding to 
my own "finds" in these islands, some one hundred speci- 
mens having been sent by me to the Government Museum, 
at different times. One of the most unique was a figure ot 
a tortoise, carved from hard wood, which was found by me 
in a cave near St. Vincent, in 1878. From this latter 
island have been sent to the various museums of Europe 
and the United States, many specimens of stone imple- 
ments. The most remarkable "find" was made a few 
years ago, of a cache or deposit of stone celts and axes, 
nearly two hundred in number, which were exhibited at 
the Jamaica Exposition, in 1891. St. Vincent seems to 
have been the ancient headquarters of the Caribs, if we may 
judge from the relics they have left behind, for this island 
is, or was, strewn with them. Some of those I secured 
and sent to the Smithsonian were veritable battle-axes, 



40 

which must have taken the strength of a giant to wield and 
cany continuously in battle, one of them weighing over six 
pounds and measuring ten inches in breadth. This name is 
applied, however, for lack of a better, at present, as they 
may have served other uses than those of war. Chisels of 
shell, such as are common in Barbadoes, and the low-lying 
islands, are infrequently found in those that are volcanic, 
which mainly constitute the Caribbees. 

The few in the Guesde collection are from the shell of 
the fossil Htrombus gigas, as being harder than the living 
strombiis. "It is certain that the Caribs did not take the 
living sfi'ombi, but were careful to use the fossil, which 
had in time acquired the hardness of ivory." 

Several minor collections exist in the West Indies, and 
these, if possible, should be gathered together in some 
American museum, where the}'' can be studied by those to 
whom the scientific aspects of the problem are familiar and 
whose opinion would be competent. 

The Prigin of the Antilleans. — In a general way, 
as shown in the preceding pages, I have gathered such 
information and herewith present it, as has been available 
to one engaged in other pursuits than ethnology. It would 
certainly be germane to inquire into, and even to speculate 
upon, the origin of the peoples whose works we have 
been examining. Without any pretence to authoritative 
premises, yet I Vi^ould venture to offer some facts bearing 
upon the question, with the humble hope that they may aid 
in the elucidation of the problem of the origin of the West- 
Indian Aborigines. 

Says the great Humboldt : " When a continent and its 
adjacent islands are peopled by one and the same race, we 
may choose between two hypotheses : an emigration from 
one, or from the other. . . . The archipelago of the W. I. 
islands forms a narrow and broken neck of land parallel 
with the isthmus of Panama, and supposed by some 
geographers to have anciently joined the peninsula of 



41 

Florida with the northeast extremity of South America. 
It is the eastern shore of an inland sea, which may be con- 
sidered as a basin with several outlets. . . . The islanders 
of Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas were, accord- 
ing to the uniform testimony of the first conquisiadores, 
entirely different from the Caribs. . . . The Caribs, in the 
XVIth. century, extended from the Virgin Islands on the 
north to the mouth of the Orinoco, perhaps to the Amazon,. 
. . . Those of the continent admit that the small W. I. 
islands were anciently inhabited by the Arawaks, a warlike 
nation yet existing on the Main. . . . They assert that the, 
male Arawaks were exterminated, except the women, by 
the Caribs, who came from the mouth of the Orinoco. 
In support of this theory, note the analogy existing between 
the language of the Arawaks and that of (some of) the 
Carib women." 

The present Caribs, says Im Thurm, say that they 
arrived in Guiana from sky-land, through a hole in the 
clouds. Davies, the ancient author from whom we have 
extensively quoted, says: "The Dominican Caribs said 
their ancestors came out of the continent, from among: 
the Calibis, to make war against the Arouages (Arawaks) 
who inhabited the islands, and whom they utterly destroyed, 
excepting the women, whom they took to themselves," etc. 
Some have held that the nation had origin in the Floridian 
peninsula ; but this theory is founded upon something 
like the following "testimony" quoted by Davies (17th 
century) : " from one Master Brigstock, an English gentle- 
man, one of the most curious and inquisitive persons in 
the world, who, among his other great and singular accom- 
plishments, hath attained the perfection of the Virginian 
and Floridian languages. . . . Who says (1653) the Carib- 
beans were originary inhabitants of the Septentrional part 
of America, of that country which is call'd Florida. They 
came to inhabit the islands after they had departed from 
amidst the Apalachites, among whom they lived a long 



42 

time ; and they left there some of their people, who to this 
day go under the name of Caribbeans(?) ; but the first 
origin is from the Cofachites, who only changed their 
denomination," etc. 

Of like trivial character, is nearly all the scant testimony 
as to a northern origin for these peoples. But, recently, a 
high authority, Prof. W. H. Holmes,^ of the Bureau of 
Ethnology, at Washington, claims to have found what may 
be termed a Caribbean contact with Florida, in certain 
treatment of such examples of ceramic art as have been 
found in Florida. Without seeking to controvert this, I 
will merely present the facts, as shown by the historians, 
by tradition, and by existing objects, which seem to lead 
us back to the South American continent as the ancient 
home of the Indians of both the Greater and Lesser Antil- 
les. That the inhabitants of these two great groups, 
or chains of islands, were of different stock, has been, I 
think, conclusively shown. Says the old writer, heretofore 
quoted : *' The great difference in language and character 
between the Caribs and the inhabitants of Cuba, Hispani- 
ola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico, hath given birth to the 
opinion that their origin was different. ... Of this there 
seems indeed to be little doubt; but the question, from 
whence each class of islands was first peopled, is of more 
difficult solution. . . . Rochefort (1G58) pronounced them 
originally a nation of Florida ; . . . yet, the natives of the 
Bahamas, nearest to Florida, were evidently a similar 
people to those of Hispaniola. Sir Walter Raleigh assures 
us that the Charaibes of the coast of Guiana spoke the 
language of Dominica ; and I incline to the opinion of 
Martyr, that the islanders were rather a colony from the 
Caribs of South America, than from any nation of the 
North. . . . Rochefort admits that their own traditions 
referred constantly to Guiana. ... It does not appear 



1" Caribbean Influences on the Prehistoric Ceramic Art of the Southern 
States," 1894. 



43 

that they entertained the most remote idea of a northern 
ancestry. . . . The antipathy which they manifested to- 
wards the unoffending natives of the larger islands appears 
extraordinary ; but it is said to have descended to them 
from their ancestors of Guiana ; they considering those 
islanders as a colony of Arawaks, a nation of South Amer- 
ica with whom the Charaibes of that continent are con- 
stantly at war. . . . But their friendship was as warm as 
their enmity was implacable. . . . The Caribs of Guiana 
still (18th century) cherish the traditions of Kaleigh's 
alliance, and to this day preserve the English colors which 
he left them at parting. "(?) — Edwards's History of 
Jamaica. 

We have seen that historical tradition points towards the 
southern continent as their ancestral abiding-place ; let us 
make another inquiry. Of the animals that constituted 
their food-supply, nearly all the mammals were allied 
to species or genera of the South American continent ; 
such were the Agouti, Peccary, Armadillo, Opossum, 
Eaccoon, " Musk-rat," the Dumb Dog (now extinct), per- 
haps the Alco, the Yutia and Almique (of Cuba), and 
possibly, in the extreme south, a species of monkey. Add 
to these the Iguana, which is peculiarly tropical, the many 
birds, and the fishes, and we have their entire food-supply 
of an animal nature ; saving that the Caribs are said to have 
been anthropophagous ; though I doubt if they were more 
than ritual cannibals, at the worst. 

We have seen, also, that the present Caribs of Guiana 
conform in many respects to those of the islands, and have 
the same characteristics, preserving their ancient dislike of 
the Arawaks to the extent of positive aversion. It only 
remains to quote from a high authority as to their linguis- 
tic affinities, to close this summary of points of resem- 
blance. As to the larger islands being inhabited by 
Indians speaking the same tongue, we may recall that a 
Lucayan interpreter served Columbus throughout his 



44 

cruisings among the various islands. Says the authority 
just alluded to, Dr. D. G. Brinton, "The Arawak stock of 
languages is the most widely disseminated of any in South 
America. It begins at the south with the Guanas, on the 
headwaters of the river Paraguay, and with the Baures and 
Moxos on the highlands of southern Bolivia, and thence 
extends almost in continuity to the Goajiros peninsula, the 
most northern land of the continent. Nor did it cease 
there ; all the Antilles, both Greater and Lesser, were 
originally occupied by its members, and so were the 
Bahamas, thus extending its dialects to within a short dis- 
tance of the mainland of the northern continent, and over 
forty-five degrees of latitude. Its tribes probably at one 
time occupied the most of the lowlands of Venezuela, 
whence they were driven, not long before the discovery, by 
the Caribs, as they also were from many of the southern 
islands of the West Indian archipelago. The latter event 
was then of such recent occurrence that the women of the 
Island Caribs, most of whom had been captured from the 
Arawaks, still sjjoke thai tongue. They were thus the first 
of the natives of the New World to receive the visitors 
from European climes ; and the words picked up by 
Columbus and his successors on the Bahamas, Cuba and 
Haiti, are readily explained by the dialects of this stock. 
No other nation was found on any part of the archipelago 
except the two I have mentioned. . . . The culture of the 
Arawak stock was generally somewhat above the stage 
of savagery. On the West Indies Columbus found them 
cultivating maize, potatoes, manioc, yams and cotton. 
They were the first to introduce to Europeans the won- 
drous art of tobacco smoking. They wove cotton into 
garments and were skilful in polishing stone. They ham- 
mered the native gold into ornaments, carved curious 
masks of wood, blocked rude idols out of large stones, 
and hollowed the trunks of trees to construct what they 



45 

called canoes. . . . Such is approximately the culture of the 
existing stock. 

" The Carib stock is one of the most extensively distrib- 
uted in the southern continent. At the discovery, its dia- 
lects were found on the Lesser Antilles, the Caribbee islands, 
and on the mainland from the mouth of the Essequibo 
to the Gulf of Maracaibo. . . . All the island, Orinoco, 
and Guiana Caribs can be traced back to the mainland of 
northern Venezuela. . . . The physical features of the 
Caribs assimilate closely to those of the Arawaks. They 
are taller, in the average, and more vigorous ; but their 
skulls are equally brachycephalic and orthognathic. . . . 
The Caribs have had a bad reputation on account of their 
anthropophagous tendencies ; indeed, the word cannibal is 
a mispronunciation of their proper name."^ 

An ancient writer says that this word was first heard 
off the coast of Haiti, — canniba, an aboriginal word, mean- 
ing man-eater; — "And finding in canniba the word can 
(Khan), Columbus was of the opinion that these pretended 
man-eaters were in reality merely subjects of the great 
Khan of Cathay, who, for a long time, had been scanning 
these seas in search of slaves." 

The Caribs were quite on a par with their neighbors, the 
Arawaks, and in some respects superior to them. "For 
instance, their canoes were larger and finer (?), and they 
had invented the device of the sail, which seems to have 
been unknown to all the other tribes on the continent. . . . 
To some extent they were agricultural, and their pottery 
was of superior quality. " — Brinton. 

We may deduce, then, from these desultory observa- 
tions, that these people, so different in many waj's, and 
yet with striking resemblances, had a southern origin' ; 
that they were still in the neolithic period, possessing 
no books, paper, hieroglyphs or ideographs ; the rude pet- 



1 " The American Eace, " by Daniel G. Brinton. New York, 1891. 



^ 



46 

roglyphs being their nearest approach to the graphic arts ; 
and there was little promise of that extraordinary develop- 
ment of an indigenous civilization on the lines of advance 
followed by the natives of Mexico and Central America. 
They seem to have been isolated from every country and 
every contact except in the south. 

Trusting that this fragmentary contribution will be 
accepted in the spirit of its intention : as containing sug- 
gestions for other and better-equipped students to follow 
out and develop ; and that it may prove acceptable to the 
honorable gentlemen with whom it is the writer's privi- 
lege to be allied, it will now" be brought to a conclusion. 



22 13^ 



